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We must not rob the universe of any factor in its being. If
any of our theorists of to-day seek to explain the action of
fire- or of any other such form, thought of as an agent- they
will find themselves in difficulties unless they recognize the
act to be the object's function in the All, and give a like
explanation of other natural forces in common use.
We do not habitually examine or in any way question the normal:
we set to doubting and working out identifications when we are
confronted by any display of power outside everyday experience:
we wonder at a novelty and we wonder at the customary when anyone
brings forward some single object and explains to our ignorance
the efficacy vested in it.
Some such power, not necessarily accompanied by reason, every
single item possesses; for each has been brought into being and
into shape within a universe; each in its kind has partaken of
soul through the medium of the ensouled All, as being embraced by
that definitely constituted thing: each then is a member of an
animate being which can include nothing that is less than a full
member [and therefore a sharer in the total of power]- though one
thing is of mightier efficacy than another, and, especially
members of the heavenly system than the objects of earth, since
they draw upon a purer nature- and these powers are widely
productive. But productivity does not comport intention in what
appears to be the source of the thing accomplished: there is
efficacy, too, where there is no will: even attention is not
necessary to the communication of power; the very transmission of
soul may proceed without either.
A living being, we know, may spring from another without any
intention, and as without loss so without consciousness in the
begetter: in fact any intention the animal exercised could be a
cause of propagation only on condition of being identical with
the animal [i.e., the theory would make intention a propagative
animal, not a mental act?]
And, if intention is unnecessary to the propagation of life, much
more so is attention.
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